Celestia's Finest: Old World Blues

[Miltonian]

Love's bots discover something interesting. The spears seem to be melded with the ground at their base. There is no mechanism which propelled them, they simply created themselves in response to the flagstone being opened. As such, the lack of any other traps further down the stairs does nothing to comfort her.

Star is, fortunately, listening in. The team hears her bust up laughing and a loud thud shortly thereafter as she falls out of her chair.

[Elbeyon]

"The spears look to be created by magic." Love sends the image over to everyone's hud. " I'm not sure on the trigger mechanics besides lifting this stone. Brazen, I'm going to shuffle to another side, and we can finish lifting." Love moves so that she can lift the stone from another angle. "I don't see anything that'd disconcerting which is disconcerting."

[DigoDragon]

"Summoned spears? Why couldn't they be pickle spears..." Rose resists the urge to let out a while. She instead sighs. "I suggest our most armored ponies stay up front."

[D.KnightSpider]

"And every pony else clear the line of fire." Sniper gestures to the side. "Anaki, Urur, anything you can share about trapping practices or means of locating magic?"

He'll step to the side once every pony else has.

[DigoDragon]

Sniper does not need to tell Rose twice. She steps aside.

[Miltonian]

"I..." Anaki bites her lip, "A passing familiarity. The elders did say our defenses would fool even unicorns. They were...trying to keep unicorns out, in fact. Something to do with alchemy and alchemical transmutation."

On that cheery note, the only way left is forward.

[DigoDragon]

"I'll uh... I'll try not to take it personal if any of these traps hurt me. Though, I hope your elders are merciful and don't go for the horn. I am quite... ah, attached to it." Rose made an attempt at humor, though now knowing that these traps could have a racist bent, she is a bit more wary than her usual.

[D.KnightSpider]

"Please don't tell me they believed aliens scrambled our DNA." Sniper mutters under his breath.

"Alright, Love, Brazen, you take point. Rose and the zebras can follow in case there are any defenses that require zebra recognition. I'll stay above you as much as I'm able. Ready?"

He'll follow his own plan if adopted.

[DigoDragon]

"Sounds good. Do we want to close the door behind us, or keep it ajar in case we need a hasty retreat?"

[Elbeyon]

Love puts the disguised flagstone carefully aside as to not damage it in the process.

She SCANS the spears/floor for magical/helpful information.

"Sounds good! Watch your head!"

The excess BugBots on the first floor get a command to regroup near the current room's door. There is no need for so many BugBots on the first floor. She takes the BugBots from this room and the floor's data. A few crawling BugBots drop in front of her to lead the way. The Swarm and ScoutBot are to hover near her.

"I think we should keep it open for the moment. If downstairs looks safe, we can run back up and close the hatch before continuing. If we do close it right away, I think we should keep a set of muscles in the back to lift it up if a retreat turns out necessary.. She privately comms, "I'll put up a security net behind us either way."

She stands up on her back hoofs and draws her mono-Katana in her other hoof. When ready, she'll lead the way and cut the stone spears down (if necessary).

Spoiler: Roll

Show

Future Rolls! Vanguard!
(3d6)[8]
vs
10 = 10 (Thaumatology) +/- (Other(s))
16 = 14 (Architecture) +2 (Software) +/- (Other(s))
16 = 13 (Perception) +3 (Hyperspectral Vision) +/- (Other(s))
15 = 12 (Search) +3 (Hyperspectral Vision) +/- (Other(s))

[Miltonian]

Anaki smiles wryly. "Aye. I can see that you are. Do not worry too much. We'll push you aside if we spot danger." That would, unfortunately, put them in the trap's way, but that just might be a sacrifice they're willing to make. Sheand Urur nod to Sniper and fall into their assigned formation.

The stone spears fall before Love's assault. Slaughtered to the last, they stood no chance against her superior might. However, the traps are very hard to spot. Nothing else hits them on the way down, but soon she comes to a short hallway about three meters long that looks...suspiciously bare.

[DigoDragon]

"Aye. I can see that you are. Do not worry too much. We'll push you aside if we spot danger."

"Oh, I worry the right amount." Rose whispers to her.

a short hallway about three meters long that looks...suspiciously bare.

"That hallways looks suspiciously bare," Rose points out. She resists the urge to make a bear pun. Instead she looks into her inventory to find some kind of pole or device to prod the way ahead.

She frowns. "Love, how is it you managed to acquire so many marvels for us, and yet haven't provided something like a 10-foot pole for poking suspicious hallways?"

[D.KnightSpider]

"Because we have other options." Sniper says.

He unclips one of his two Tangler grenades. Without arming the charge, he lobs it down the hallway.

[DigoDragon]

"Because we have other options." Sniper says.
He unclips one of his two Tangler grenades. Without arming the charge, he lobs it down the hallway.

"Huh, fair enough. Though now I wish I had that robot dog Love got me to go fetch," Rose comments.

[Elbeyon]

Love does as she said she would. When Scope enters the secret passage a flying/crawling mesh net of BugBots block the entrance way with their bodies. They're set to trigger an alarm if they spot/feel movement or other suspicious activity. Two get set aside as permanent residences of the room like the other five rooms.

She jokes in good fun, "That's a stickler. It never skewered in my mind. You could always requisition an official EDF suspicious hallway poking stick." Love lightly chuckles. "Brazen has a crowbar, but I'll look into a telescopic or folding pole for us." Now, she wonders if he brought his shield.

The grenade puts her on guard. She waits/watches for something to happen.

[Miltonian]

Anaki slowly holds up her quarterstaff. It would serve as a hallway-poking stick quite well, but it would be a shame if it got destroyed in the process.

The grenades bounce down the hall. In the short distance they travel, spears stab out and retract from both sides, flames scorch the stone, and a choking, black mist seeps out of the cracks, absorbing both light and giving everypony who even looks at it a sense of emptiness and apathy. They reach the end, beaten, bent, and broken.

[Elbeyon]

Spears, gouts of flame, and a depressive black fog, all total, is more than what she expected. What are the elders trying to hide away!?

"That could have gone better. Anyone see an off button?"

Love SCANS the black mist for helpful information. She looks/feels around for secret buttons and progresses that search into the hallway using a few BugBots.

[DigoDragon]

"Let's not ruin a perfectly good staff on that hallway, Anaki," Rose says. She looks around for some kind of 'switch' to get past this. It probably isn't a switch in the mundane sense. Not a button you would physically push, but there must be something around the elders manipulated to get by this trap.

Spoiler: Rolls

Show

PERception (3d6)[8] vs. 13 (searching)

Thaumatology (3d6)[9] vs. 14 (this is in regards to what triggers the trap. Can Rose determine if it's movement, pressure on the ground, or sound?)

"If there's an active spell at work here, I could trying dispelling it, but somehow I think the elders would have taken the time to really strengthen this trap against me. I mean, not specifically me, but like, unicorns with Dispel magic like me."

[Miltonian]

Anaki sighs in relief and withdraws her very nice quarterstaff. It’d be a waste anyway. “Thank you,” she says quietly.

Love’s SCAN soon gives her its results. “Lethe Mist,” it says, “This substance is created by mixing water from the river of Lethe in the Underworld with common dust. It is harmless until disturbed, at which point it will swirl up and create an area of fog dangerous to anyone who enters it. Direct exposure, even in small amounts, can cause bouts of amnesia. Prolonged contact has a high chance of causing complete and total memory loss.”

Rose’s analysis tells her that this was a contact-triggered trap. The vibrations of the grenades bouncing along triggered the alchemical reaction by bringing the various elements of the trap into contact with one another. However, it also seems that, now that the traps have been triggered, they will not reset on their own. The components had to be carefully placed and left completely undisturbed. Now that they are used up, someone would have to place them down again.

In other words, the danger comes from very volatile dust.

[DigoDragon]

"Alright, this is potentially good news," Rose says softly to everyone around her. "The fog doesn't appear to reset itself. It was alchemical and would need fresh ingredients to be usable again. The gas and fire are from dusts that mix together, so... don't breath on the walls too hard. Not sure is the spears are also some kind of alchemical reaction, but... I want to compare them to those little snake fireworks that ignight and just lengthen and squirm. anyway, traveling through might be safe now. Do we want to test it with a little robot bug or maybe one of our armored members?"

[Elbeyon]

"I wouldn't call the passage safe yet. The traps may be sprung, but that black mist is still around."

Love tells them about the Lethe Mist.

"We shouldn't walk through that unprotected."

[DigoDragon]

"Well, we have two options to try and disperse such a mist; Sniper's flight magic or my own purify spell."

[D.KnightSpider]

"I'm wearing a sealed suit, which I'm rapidly coming to appreciate. Any pony mind if I take first crack at it?" Sniper asks.

[DigoDragon]

"I have no objection," Rose answers.

[Elbeyon]

Love smiles at Scope's appreciation. The world is a dangerous place which means sometimes it's better not to touch anything! "Underworld mist against purifying magic or Pegasus magic is advanced stuff. Do you want to try to trap the mist in a bottle?" Love reaches for her thermos. "It's only an idea. Anyone without protection will to back up during the attempt."

Spoiler: Roll

Show

Lethe Mist. Tell me your secrets!
(3d6)[10] vs 12 (Occultism) +/- (Other(s))

[D.KnightSpider]

"As scary as this is to admit, you read my mind. Amnesia dust would be very helpful against the Anti-Elements, assuming that it would work against them, of course." Sniper says as he accepts the Thermos.

"Any pony else happen to have a sealed container? I'm not planning a trip to the underworld any time soon so this will be our last chance to stock up."

[DigoDragon]

"I have a canteen, but it isn't sturdy for something like that." Rose will remain a safe distance from Love Savage and Sniper Hyneman.

[D.KnightSpider]

"Fair enough."

Sniper flies forward. He moves slowly and carefully down the tunnel, attempting to disturb as little as possible. The first order of business is to collect some of that amnesia dust.

[Miltonian]

"Careful," Anaki warns, oh-so-helpfully.

Sniper's wings kick up a bit of the dust, swirling it in little eddies beneath him, but his cautious approach pulls him through without coming into contact with it. He snags a bit of it and bottles it up for later use. Unfortunately, the dust is still present, milling about along the floor below.

Love's studies on the strange, bizarre, and arcane have little to say on this particular topic. It comes from the rive Lethe, hence its name, and exposure lasting over a minute will, in nine out of ten recorded cases, give the unfortunate victim permanent and irreversible amnesia. The only exceptions are the undead and those who are naturally immortal. It is very potent stuff.

[DigoDragon]

"Careful," Anaki warns, oh-so-helpfully.

"Random question if you don't mind," Rose asks Anaki and Urur. "Where was the game board when you took it and fled your home?"